Continuing Certification Requirement for CNEs

Novell has announced a new continuing certification requirement for its Certified Novell Engineers (CNEs). All CNEs who want to keep receiving benefits must upgrade their status to NetWare 6 by Oct. 31, 2003. Novell will allow people who don’t upgrade to continue calling themselves CNEs, but warns that these folks will not receive benefits, and if inquiries are made as to their certification status, Novell will inform the inquirer that the CNE has not upgraded their certification.

Since the introduction of the Certified NetWare Engineer (since renamed Certified Novell Engineer) certification in 1989, Novell has occasionally introduced continuing certification requirements (CCRs) in order to guarantee that its certificants are up-to-date on the latest Novell technologies. The last CCR introduced by the program covered NetWare 5 in 1998.

CNEs plan, install, configure, troubleshoot and upgrade services for networks. CNE candidates must have knowledge of platform environments and local operating system concepts before taking on the required exams.

For existing CNEs certified on NetWare 4 and intraNetWare, there is a single upgrade exam required to become NetWare 6 CNEs: #050-678. NetWare 5 CNEs also must pass a single exam to meet the CCR: #050-676. Courses to prepare for the upgrade exams are available in both self-study and instructor-led formats. CNEs must meet the CCR requirement in order to retain access to their benefits, including access to CNENet, certification forums, technical support discounts and more.

If you are wondering what IT path to follow, whether you’re new to the industry or you have years of experience, techies.com has a resource to help you figure it out. Techies.com released the ‘2002 State of the Techie Address,” a 10-section, 40-page report on IT careers and training.

“Two and a half years into the worst economy since the depression, the fallout continues, and the collective tech community is wondering what the future holds and how they fit,” says Paul Cronin, president of techies.com, in the executive summary of the Address. “This fantastic Address marks the beginning of our efforts at techies.com to help the tech community better use our knowledge as power, to bring them closer together, to build a first-class ‘career network.'”

The Address was sponsored by Books 24×7, Capella University and TimeLife Inc., and it includes a series of IT career industry reports taken from techies.com research conducted from April to October 2002. The information in the Address comes from member surveys, database queries and interviews with U.S. IT professionals.

The Address covers a myriad of topics that will answer many of your IT career questions: recent trends for techies, the IT industry and employers and recruiters, the outlook for late 2002 and early 2003, ways techies can adapt to change, the best employers, salary and bonus information, profession and gender breakouts, updates on the recent Tech Skills Demand Index, training preferences, the changing value of certifications, emerging professions and hot sub-industries and how your job function controls you.

“In any community, knowledge is power,” states Cronin in the executive summary. “With your help, techies.com has an abundance of knowledge we want to share with you so we can come together as a tech community.”

You might recall the recent news that Que Publishing had acquired the popular Exam Cram book series. Well, now a complementary Web site has been launched that will help aspiring IT professionals prove their technical skill. The new site, http://www.examcram.com, acts as a “certification information clearinghouse” for IT professionals looking for help in getting ready for their certification exams.

The Web site was launched on Dec. 2, 2002, and it offers a combination of tools, techniques, news and other information to help you through the certification experience. The site features free practice exams, online chats with your IT professional peers and experts on certification topics, a question-of-the-day online newsletter that covers a variety of test questions, discounts on training books, career information and job descriptions.

Ed Tittel, the contributing editor for Certification Magazine who created the original Exam Cram series, was recently named series editor for Exam Cram2 and the Que Certification Training Guides. Tittel will also oversee the new Web site. “I want this site to be driven by the needs of test-takers,” said Tittel. “We will encourage our site visitors to provide us feedback so we can